History of Cherokee, Crawford Counties

I grew up in Cherokee County. I knew it was first called McGee but didn’t know why. According to a Kansas History book dated 1899, written by Noble Prentis, it was named after E. McGee, a member of the Territorial Legislature, in 1855.

In 1866 the name was changed to Cherokee because a large part of the Cherokee Neutral Lands were in that area. It was called the Cherokee Neutral Lands because it wa…